Hundreds of people braved the cold to light candles and lay flowers at monuments to the victims of Communism on the 70th anniversary of the Communist takeover on February 25, 1948. The anniversary is being marked by debates, exhibitions and film screenings.

A gathering in support of democracy took place on Wenceslas Square at which speakers warned of the danger of giving the Communist Party even a supportive role in the country’s next government.

Some of the participants carried banners with anti-communist slogans and criticism of current Prime Minister in resignation Andrej Babis (ANO).

Most of the speakers warned of the Communists’ rise to power and criticised President Milos Zeman as well as the activities of the current minority government of Andrej Babis’s ANO, ruling in resignation.

This is actually a government of one party without confidence of the Chamber of Deputies, the speakers said, pointing to the government’s “purges” in state administration and various business restrictions.

4,500 people were murdered during the Communist years, 374 were killed at the country’s borders in an attempt to flee to the West, 254 were sentenced to death in political show trials, thousands were persecuted by the Communist secret police and 180,000 people fled the country.